The Case Against Perpetual Airdrops
Distribution events were supposed to bootstrap communities. Increasingly they bootstrap mercenaries.
Airdrops began as a way to hand ownership to early users. In practice, the mechanism now rewards farming behaviour that disappears the moment the claim window closes.
The alternative is unglamorous: charge for the product, retain the revenue, and distribute ownership to people who stay. Several teams have started doing exactly that, and their retention curves look nothing like the airdrop cohort.
This column reflects the author's views and is labelled Opinion under MyBunnyFarm's editorial policy.
- airdrops
- tokenomics
- opinion
About the author
Daniel Reis — Daniel Reis tracks venture funding, protocol governance and decentralised finance infrastructure. Before journalism he spent four years as a smart-contract auditor, which shapes a reporting habit of reading the code alongside the announcement.
Venture & DeFi Reporter · Lisbon, Portugal · More from Daniel Reis
Corrections to this report: corrections desk. Nothing in this article is investment advice.